OUR HOME DEPARTMENT


  And with knowledge of the technique,
and experience with the practical side,
what could be more profitable in devel-
oping common sense and mental keenness
and some craftsmanship than for the golf
girl to make her golf dress? It will also
develop patience in herself and consid-
eration for others.
  These same facts hold good for any
sort of clothes that girls wear-their
dancing frocks, their simple, dainty af-
ternoon muslins, or the dresses in which
housework is done, and    done quietly,
neatly, effectually and with enthusiasm if
the girl has been taught aright. When
housework is properly taught and houses
have been arranged so that all parts are
attractive, and girls are helped to under-
stand that such work not only contributes
to happiness, but to strength and beauty,
they will begin to estimate justly the la-
bor of keeping a house beautiful, will
find enjoyment in making pretty work
frocks, and in looking charming for ev-
ery home duty.
  We have grown to separate beauty
from utility in our homes as we have in
our educational systems. All the money
must be spent in the "parlor," the sun-
light is captured for the "front of the
house," the worn out, threadbare, color-
less things are relegated to the kitchen,
which is usually the forlornest corner of
the building, and in some houses it is
even the scrap basket for the other rooms.
No wonder light-hearted youth does not
sigh for its seclusion, and that it is not
customary to plan very pretty garments
for its occupancy.
  But with the kitchen commodious and
bright and filled with a blue and white


cleanness, what unusually pretty, even
picturesque, costumes belong to it. Prints
and ginghams in the nicest blues, greens
and browns can be bought for a few cents,
and these stuffs, selected with a becom-
ing color note and made well fitting, low
about the throat, ending at the elbow
and worn with a white ruffled cap and
plain long white apron, will give a girl,
with only the average prettiness of youth,
the chance of her life to look piquant and
winning.
  And if a girl stands and sits erect
when she is working, and takes full deep
breaths and keeps the room sweet with
oxygen, she is going to discount the av-
erage gymnasium    in  the health   and
beauty acquired in "helping about the
house."
  Not that a girl would like too much
of this sort of "enjoyment," nor should
she have it, the house should not be per-
mitted to demand over-hours. A woman
should fit up her house so simply, so per-
manently, so wholly without labor-pro-
voking frills and fashions that it is not
difficult to keep it in order. Without but-
toned furniture and carpets and white
curtains and elaborate napery and mean-
ingless bric-a-brac, a house is not a bur-
den to the house-workers.
  All the home duties, the making of
clothes as well, should be kept subserv-
ient to the actual joy of living, outdoor
life, music, mental intercourse, and the
developing of friendship at home an4i
abroad.
  You can get all the beauty there is in
simple things, all the color and line and
texture, and you can also much more
easily get durability and freedom from
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